Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk was a stand out performer against Porto last night.
John Barnes has told HITC, speaking on behalf of Bonus Code Bets, that he feels Virgil Van Dijk has brought stability to Liverpool’s defence.
Van Dijk had a slightly shaky start to his Liverpool career, after arriving from Southampton in January for a mammoth fee, but the Dutch defender has looked superb in his recent outings.
Van Dijk has helped the Reds keep back-to-back clean-sheets against Southampton and Porto, and Barnes feels that the centre-back is starting to show his class.
“He’s brought stability to the defence,” Barnes enthused. “He looks calm and assured.
“I said before we got him, when they said ‘let’s sign other players’, we need to trust Jurgen Klopp.
“When [Naby] Keita comes in the summer it’ll also improve us. So things are looking good, but we’ve still got a long way to go. We’re doing really well at the moment, but we’ve got to keep this up.”
Van Dijk was in commanding form as Liverpool picked up a 5-0 victory over Porto in the Champions League last night.
Jurgen Klopp’s side dismantled their Portuguese opponents to effectively secure their progress to the next round in the first-leg.
And Barnes was delighted to see his former side perform so well in the contest.
“They did very well. It was a great performance,” he added.
“You don’t expect to win 5-0. I’ve always said that any team that plays against Liverpool in an attacking way leave themselves open to the counter attack and Liverpool are the best counter attacking team in Europe, so while I didn’t expect to win 5-0 I knew that we would cause them problems.”
Liverpool’s attack ripped apart Porto on numerous occasions, and Klopp’s men really seem to be clicking into top gear now.
Liverpool are next in action in two weekends’ time, when they take on West Ham United at Anfield.
John Barnes was speaking exclusively to HITC on behalf of Bonus Code Bets.
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